


sign here for a date

by Melui



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F, First Kiss, First Meetings, Flirty Lena Luthor, Fluff, Getting to Know Each Other, Kara thinks Lena the postwoman is marvellous, Lena is a postwoman, Mutual Pining, She is both okay, Shy Lena Luthor, Snoopy makes a short appearance, SuperCorp, They're into each other, kara has no chill, karlena, this is basically just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:01:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29355372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melui/pseuds/Melui
Summary: Kara Danvers opens her door expecting to sign for her new laptop, not to come face to face with a goddess on her doorstep.Or, Lena is a postwoman, Kara develops a crush, and mail is occasionally mentioned.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 44
Kudos: 833





	sign here for a date

**Author's Note:**

> Someone asked me last summer what I would do if Lena Luthor showed up on my doorstep, and the very British "make a total tit out of myself" was the response. This fic was born as a result of that conversation!

The doorbell rang just as Kara was yanking her jeans up. The early June weather was warm and sticky, just the wrong kind of day to attempt to pull skinny jeans on, but she was committed now. They were half on, half off, and Kara wasn’t about to be defeated by them. Kara let out a deep, guttural _ugh_ as she roughly yanked them up around her hips just as the doorbell rang again.

“ _Shit!_ ” she cursed loudly, not bothering to find her shoes. There wasn’t any time left to look. Instead, she thundered down the stairs in her fuzzy socks and slid down the hall towards the front door, arms out wide for balance.

Kara was expecting a package today, a new laptop that she’d got to celebrate finally becoming an investigative journalist for CatCo Worldwide Media. She’d been waiting a week for it, and had made sure that it would be delivered on a morning that she would actually be home. The last thing she wanted was the laptop being leaned up against the door by a lazy postman, there for anyone who went past to see, or one of those annoying _sorry we missed you!_ cards in her mailbox or stuck in her screen door.

Through the pane of frosted glass, she could see the shape of a person standing outside, and the corner of a brown box.

“Just a second!” she called loudly through her closed door as she undid the chain and fought a small war with the awkward key in the lock. The postal worker waved a hand, perhaps acknowledging that they’d heard Kara. She fiddled with the key until it finally clicked in the lock.

Sighing with relief, Kara pulled the door open.

“Hi, sorry about the wait, the door’s a little, uh …” Kara’s eyes rose to the postal worker’s face. “It— uh...”

Perfect pink lips quirked up in a smile as Kara stuttered to a stop.

Kara’s eyes flashed quickly over the person in front of her, just making sure that she wasn’t being punked. Yep, there was the uniform in various shades of blue, the USPS symbol displayed near her lapel, and the comfortable working boots.

_Nothing_ else was ordinary.

This was _not_ one of the people who usually delivered her mail. Kara would most definitely have remembered.

The postwoman in front of her was _beautiful_. Completely, unfairly, and undeniably beautiful. Kara took in the mesmerizing green eyes that were crinkled in the corners from her friendly smile, the perfectly shaped eyebrows that just begged to be traced, and the high cheekbones. When she looked sideways to check the name on the large package she was holding, Kara could see the devastatingly sharp cut of her jaw and the long, silky dark hair hanging down from a tight ponytail.

The woman in front of her was literally the world’s most stunning human, and Kara felt like she’d been knocked sideways. Until this moment she’d never believed in love at first sight and she wasn’t so sure it was _love_ she was feeling, but it was certainly _something_.

There was an actual goddess standing on her doorstep and Kara had no idea what to do about it.

“Are you Kara Danvers?” the woman asked in a voice as smooth as dark chocolate, looking back up. She quirked an eyebrow and smiled wryly as she caught Kara staring at her.

If this were a movie, this would be the point where Kara would strike up a witty conversation, be charming, or at the very least, not embarrass herself.

Instead, she’d absolutely, _definitely_ been caught checking the postwoman out. Kara flushed immediately, the hot burn creeping up her face and lodging itself firmly on her cheeks.

“That’s me,” Kara squeaked.

“Signature here, please,” the postwoman said, holding out her signature tablet to Kara.

Kara took it and signed a messy signature across the pad with the pen. “I’ve never seen you before,” she commented as she held the tablet back out.

Their fingers brushed as they both held the tablet between them, and the woman’s smile widened. “Funnily enough, I’ve never seen you before either.”

“Oh!” Kara burst out. “Oh, no, that’s— I mean, are you new?”

“Not to this job.” Amused green eyes travelled over Kara, pausing just below her waistline before snapping straight back up to meet Kara’s gaze. “Well,” she said slowly, “this is certainly a first.”

_A first?_ Kara thought. _A first for what?_ This was going from bad to worse. Perhaps the bend and snap might work? But no, knowing Kara’s luck, she’d break the poor woman’s nose.

“I’m sorry, I’m- is that for me?” Kara asked distractedly, finally letting go of the tablet and pointing at the package.

The postwoman let out a snort of laughter. “Well, it does have your name on it, and you’ve already signed for it.”

“Right, right,” Kara replied, smacking herself gently on the forehead. _Could I possibly be embarrassing myself more?_

The postwoman handed the box with her laptop to her carefully. As she took it, Kara’s eyes flickered back up to her face. There was a slight pink blush on the woman’s cheekbones as if she, too, was flustered about something. What could’ve caused that, Kara had no idea, since she was the one acting like a teenager in front of their crush.

The postwoman tucked the signature tablet into a little holder on her waist and looked back up at Kara, one hand on her hip and the other clutching the strap of her bag. It seemed as if she wanted to say something else, but couldn’t find the words; Kara felt herself get lost in those lovely green eyes as they gazed at each other for a moment.

“Well, I…” the postwoman started, before ducking her head a little and tightening her hold on her bag. When her eyes met Kara’s again, the faint pink blush on her cheeks had deepened, and Kara felt a distinct fluttering in her chest. “I hope you have a good day, miss… Kara,” she finished, leaning forward slightly and speaking in a quiet voice. She gave Kara a soft smile that Kara instinctively knew, just knew, that she didn’t bestow on just anyone, before she turned to go back down the path.

Kara watched her go, and all of a sudden, she couldn’t bear the thought of the postwoman just leaving, perhaps never to be seen again. She felt something slipping between them, like a chance that might be lost if she didn’t reach out and grasp it. Something invisible pulled her forward towards her, and she stepped out onto the porch, raising a hand in the air between them as if she could somehow magically stop time.

“Wait, what’s your name?” Kara called out. She just had to ask, had to know, had to hear her voice one last time.

The woman paused halfway down the path, the sun making her dark hair shine. She looked over her shoulder at Kara. “I’ll tell you next time,” she replied, before smiling once more and heading out of the gate.

Kara’s breath left her body in a whoosh as she finally lost sight of her.

She turned and went back inside, holding the box with her new laptop in it carefully to her chest. Kara had the distinct feeling that something had shifted in her life, as if this morning was going to turn out to be pivotal in some way.

Kara leaned backwards against her closed front door and blew out a breath that ended in a laugh that echoed down her hallway. On the one hand, she felt almost giddy and light, like she could fly, and on the other, she felt like she had bumbled her way through the conversation with the pretty postwoman about as badly as it was possible to.

Heading up the stairs towards her office, Kara frowned when she remembered what the postwoman had said just after she’d given her a once-over. She carried the box into the office and put it down on her desk, before she moved into the bedroom and looked at herself in the mirror.

Instantly, she shut her eyes and took a deep breath. When she’d pulled her jeans on, she had been in too much of a rush to make sure that everything was straightened up. Not only had she _not_ zipped herself up, she also hadn’t fastened the button. The top of her jeans was hanging open, clearly displaying her underwear.

The Snoopy on her underwear had been waving out of her jeans at the beautiful postwoman.

Kara flopped backwards onto her bed, hands over her face, and let out a huge groan.

≈

A few days later, Kara told herself that she had almost, _almost_ forgotten about the mortification she’d suffered at her own hands when her laptop had been delivered. She was lying to herself, though. There were still moments where it crossed her mind at random, like while she was in the queue for pastries with Alex at Noonan’s at lunchtime and she’d suddenly blushed a deep red.

“Come on Kara, it really can’t have been that bad,” Alex said once they’d sat back down with an iced tea each and a colorful number on a stick.

“My underwear was waving at her, Alex!” Kara replied, feeling her face heating up again. “I’m almost positive she saw it! She blushed a little, and she wasn’t blushing before! I mean, don’t you always notice when someone’s pants aren’t done up? And my _underwear_ was _waving_ at her like some kind of … invitation!”

“Snoopy was inviting the pretty postwoman into your pants?”

Kara scrubbed roughly at her face with her hands. “Oh god.”

Alex smirked. “I mean, kudos to your cartoon underwear for having more game than you.”

Kara lowered her hands and narrowed her eyes at her sister. “You take that back.”

“I only speak the truth. _Hey!_ ” she exclaimed when Kara flicked an ice cube at her. “It’s not my fault you completely went to pieces. You haven’t seen her since anyway, right? So what’s the problem?”

“The problem is that she was the most beautiful person ever and I made a fool out of myself. Plus, she was just there doing her job and I— ugh. It’s _also_ that she was so, so pretty and I am so, _so_ gay. I was not at my best. How would you feel if when you first met Kelly, you’d been wearing a fluffy pink cardigan and, I dunno, lime green and purple polka dot pants or something instead of your kickass leather jacket and boots?”

Alex grimaced at the image Kara had drawn. “Fair enough. You’re right, though. You really are just a useless lesbian. Why don’t you just make sure you’re home the next time the mail comes so that you can say sorry to her or something?”

Kara nodded and picked up her iced tea. “Yeah. Yeah, that sounds like a good—”

“Or at least try and be a bit more memorable than your underwear.”

≈

For the next three weeks, Kara kept missing the mail on Saturday mornings, the only days she was around when it came. She wanted to see the pretty postwoman to apologize for the Snoopy incident, and also, sue her, she just wanted to see her again. Her luck, however, was not on her side. She had either been in the bathroom, been too busy working on an article to notice the time flying by, or in the middle of doing some household chores; she hadn’t lived in her new house for very long, and still had a fair number of boxes that needed unpacking piled up in the garage.

It was with disappointment each time that she went down to her mailbox to pick up her post and realize that she had missed another opportunity. The more time passed, the more often their first meeting came to her mind, the more embarrassed she felt about the whole thing.

Not only had she not managed to _shoot her shot_ , as her colleague Nia would’ve said, there was also the whole underwear thing. If wishes were free and Kara could have a do-over of the whole thing, she would definitely make sure she was wearing the yellow dress that she knew made her eyes look even bluer, and hopefully be more coherent. She had to give herself points for managing to get words out at all, though; after all, it wasn’t every day that she got to meet a goddess on her own doorstep.

As it was, she hadn’t seen the postwoman for weeks, so could neither do better, nor apologize.

All she could do was wait.

≈

By the time the next Saturday morning rolled around, Kara was ready for the weekend. She was utterly exhausted and felt like she could easily sleep for an entire day. It had been a long week, her new boss was extremely overbearing and rude, and she had a lot of edits she needed to work through on her most recent article. She loved her job and had worked hard to get to where she was today, but that didn’t mean that everything had suddenly become easy. She was going to celebrate the weekend in true Kara Danvers style by getting her exercising done out of the way early so that she could watch Netflix with a huge tub of ice cream, completely guilt-free.

She was pretty fit, but fifteen minutes into her ten-mile run, she was regretting her decision; the sticky, humid morning air was sapping her energy fast, and by the time she neared home, Kara was sweating buckets and breathing hard. It was no longer merely warm out, but hot. She’d run out of water a couple of miles ago and her mouth and throat were dry. As her street came into view, she heaved a heavy sigh of relief and turned onto it. On the home stretch, she slowed down and wiped her forehead with her sweatband. She was almost at a walk when she saw a USPS truck coming to a stop at the opposite end of the street, and the flash of a dark ponytail as the driver climbed out and walked around to the back.

Kara wondered for a split second whether it was _her_ again, and before she knew what she was doing, her feet had taken over her brain and she was sprinting up the street towards her house, _just in case_. Already tired, the extra exertion caused her lungs to feel like they were on fire. By the time she reached her gate, the back of her throat felt like it was sandpaper and she had to cling tightly to her gate to hold herself upright. Dark spots swum in front of her eyes for a moment and she squeezed her eyes closed while she fought for breath.

“Are you alright?” came a melodious voice to Kara’s left. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”

“I’m ah _hhhhhhhhokay_ ,” Kara panted, looking up. “I’m-”

_Shit_ , it really _was_ her. It was her, and Kara couldn’t breathe.

“I’m…”

“Take your time.”

Kara heaved a massive breath and almost choked on it when she chanced a look up and saw those beautiful green eyes looking at her with concern. “I’m okay I th-think. I’ve been- _ugh_ \- out for a jog.”

“A _jog?_ ” the postwoman blurted incredulously, looking her up and down and taking in Kara’s shorts and gym shirt. “It’s nearly a hundred degrees out today! You look like you’re about to melt into the sidewalk. Let me get you some water.”

She disappeared around the side of her USPS truck, but was back a few moments later with an unopened bottle, which she handed to Kara. The bottle was mercifully cold when she took it, and Kara gratefully twisted the lid off and drank deeply.

With a kick to her ego, Kara realized that sprinting to her house was a stupid idea, and not only because sprinting on a hot day was a bad idea. The last time she’d met the postwoman, her pants had been undone, and she’d spent the next few days being embarrassed about her underwear. This time, she was sweating herself into a puddle, her legs were shaking, and she could feel that her hair was flatteringly stuck to her temples. There were beads of sweat trickling down the sides of her face and she just _knew_ that she was beetroot in the face as well.

_Wonderful._

“I’m, uh, dedicated.”

“I can see that.”

Kara took another deep drink of the water, almost finishing it off as the cool water soothed her sandpaper throat. “Thank you so much for the water. You’re a lifesaver.”

The postwoman let out a low, rich chuckle that made Kara’s stomach tighten pleasurably. “I’d rather you didn’t pass out on the sidewalk,” was the wry response. “I must say, I’d prefer you conscious.”

Kara blinked some stinging sweat out of her eyes and looked back at her companion. Unlike Kara, she wasn’t bright red in the face, nor were her clothes sticking to her. She was wearing shorts today and somehow managing to make the very uncomplimentary USPS uniform work for her. She was squinting in the bright sunshine, one hand up over her eyes so that she could see Kara better, and the sun was making the deep mahogany of her hair shine.

Their eyes met, and Kara was caught in those vivid greens.

“Hello again, Kara,” the postwoman said, a small but pleased smile on her face, like she was happy that Kara hadn’t just said hello then rushed off into her house.

“Hi,” Kara replied, her own voice quiet. “You remember my name.”

“Of course I do,” came the softly-spoken response.

Their gaze held for a long moment, and for Kara, the rest of the world faded. She forgot the pain in her lungs. All that mattered was that the postwoman was here, and that she wasn’t looking at Kara like she was disgusted at the sweaty mess she was right now. Perhaps like Kara was a little crazy for going for a run in 100-degree heat, but not disgusted. She looked like she was right where she wanted to be, standing next to Kara’s gate and looking over at her while the warm air swirled around them.

And then, somewhere down the street, a door slammed. Kara startled a little at the interruption, and the corners of the other woman’s smile twitched up into a smirk that displayed her dimples. _Dimples_. Fuck, Kara was a goner. The postwoman was just as beautiful as she’d been the first time she’d seen her. Kara felt her heart beat faster when those lovely eyes travelled over Kara’s torso, and lower. Kara could practically feel her look like a physical touch; she instinctually tensed her abdomen in response, and-

“No Snoopy today?” the postwoman asked, looking back up and raising an eyebrow.

Sudden and intense mortification flooded through Kara, and her chest felt like it was about to burst with the apology she’d been carrying around for weeks. “N-no, and I’m so sorry about that!” she exclaimed, her words clearing the spell the postwoman’s eyes had cast on her. She put the bottle down on her gate and took a step towards her, spreading her hands out. “That was really unprofess- wait, we don’t work together. It was so rude– no wait, I didn’t intend for it to be rude. Crass?” Kara floundered on, watching the woman’s eyebrow raise higher. “Whatever it was or however you felt about it, I _really_ didn’t mean to do that and I’m so sorry. I’ve been wanting to see you again, to– to apologize. I’ve never done _anything_ like that before! I mean, I didn’t _do_ it on purpose, it was an accident. It’s just that I was getting dressed when you rang the doorbell and–”

“Hey, it’s _okay_ ,” the woman interrupted with a smile so pretty that Kara trailed off. “ _Really,_ ” she emphasized, the almost flirty expression she’d had on her face morphing to one more conciliatory, holding out a placating hand when Kara must have looked as unconvinced as she felt. Her hand hovered just above Kara’s forearm for a moment, but she didn’t touch her.

“Are you sure?” Kara asked.

The postwoman nodded. “No harm done. I’ve honestly seen worse things in this job. Honestly, I thought you were cu–” The postwoman cut herself off, then cleared her throat and met Kara’s eyes again. “If that’s the worst you’ve ever done, then I think we’ll be alright.”

_Cute?_ Kara thought. _Was that what she was going to say?_ The blood in her veins started to sing at the thought of it.

Kara sighed deeply in relief at the accepted apology though, and the woman tilted her head, her kind smile causing a web of laughter lines to spread out from the corners of her eyes. Kara felt warmth spread throughout her body that had nothing to do with her jog, the hot day, or her embarrassment. A person only got laughter lines like that from, well, smiling and laughing a lot; Kara was a big fan of being able to see the physical reminders of happiness on a person’s face. It only made people more beautiful, in Kara’s eyes. And this woman was already stunning.

“Thank you,” Kara eventually managed, dragging her attention back to the present and smiling gratefully. “I’ve felt so awful about it for weeks. I kept hoping to see you.”

“Well, please don’t worry about it anymore,” she replied. “It was the highlight of my day. And … I also hoped to–” she cleared her throat again and caught the corner of her bottom lip with her teeth, as if she thought she’d said too much. “Well, here’s your mail, Kara.” She pulled a small stack of envelopes from her satchel and riffled through them. She handed Kara three envelopes containing what looked like bills, before she smiled at her again, causing Kara’s heart to beat hard in her chest. “I have to get going. The mail won’t deliver itself, you know.”

“Yeah, I honestly can’t wait to get out of these clothes and into the shower,” Kara said unthinkingly, pulling the hem of her damp workout shirt up and away from her body, exposing her abs to the relief of the slight breeze. It was only when the postwoman’s cheeks turned that adorable shade of pink again that Kara realized what she’d done, dropped the hem, and smacked herself in the forehead. “What the f- I am _so_ sorry! Please don’t burn all my mail!”

The woman snorted a laugh. “I’ll try to be careful with the matches. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. If you feel like going for any more jogs, do yourself a favor and _don’t_. It’s going to be even hotter tomorrow and I won’t be around to rescue you with cold bottles of water.”

“Ugh, I probably won’t even bother with clothes if it’s this hot. I’ll just eat ice cream in my underwear with the AC on full blast,” she said in a jovial voice. When the postwoman laughed again, Kara balked. “Oh no.”

“Oh, I’m afraid so.”

“ _Please_ don’t burn my mail!” Kara begged, letting go of the gate and clapping her hands together. “I am so sorry, I don’t know what’s come over me! I swear I’m not usually like this. My sister is going to laugh herself stupid when I tell her.”

The postwoman tilted her head again, and her smile turned a little coquettish. “There’s no need to apologize. You’re certainly the most interesting, ah, stop on my route. I’m never quite sure what I’m going to get when I see you.”

_And, okay._

Kara felt a little less like she wanted a hole to open under her feet and swallow her up.

“That’s good, right?” Kara asked tentatively, allowing hope to creep into her voice.

“Mm, I’d definitely say so. Anyway, I really do have to get going. Time waits for no woman,” the woman said in a low, conspiratorial tone that doubled Kara’s need to take a shower.

“Right, right, um,” Kara replied, crossing her arms and uncrossing them, before uselessly clasping her hands in front of her in a humorously penitent gesture with her mail clutched between them. “I’m sorry for taking up your time!”

In front of her, the woman folded her own arms slowly and held Kara’s gaze with a steady one of her own. “Oh, I don’t mind at all,” she replied, her voice dropping to a level that could be called _sultry_. “I find you quite intriguing, Kara Danvers.” She paused for a moment before a look of nervous determination came over her face. “And I always find myself hoping you’ll be home when I come past.”

Kara swallowed in nervous excitement at the implication, and tone, of those words. “Yeah?”

The woman nodded before walking a few paces towards Kara’s neighbor’s house. Suddenly, she turned around, and Kara’s heart leapt once more in her chest. “Oh, by the way. In case you were still wondering, my name’s Lena.”

Lena. _She that allures_. Apt.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Lena,” Kara said with a quick wave and a wide smile, her earlier hope growing stronger by the second.

Lena gave her a little wave back, and then slipped on a pair of mirrored aviator Ray-Bans. “See you next time, Kara. And tell Snoopy hi for me.”

Kara’s surprised laughter spilled out of her at the flippant joke, loud and raucous. It was met by Lena’s, light and musical and lovely.

The sound of Lena’s pretty laughter stayed with Kara all afternoon.

≈

Kara endured Alex and Kelly’s teasing about her second encounter with Lena the next time they met up. When Kara, from behind her hands, explained how she’d flashed her abs at Lena and then announced that she’d be spending the next day practically naked, Alex accidentally inhaled the sugar off the doughnut she was about to take a bite of.

Kelly clapped Alex on the back while she wheezed, eyes streaming, and Kara kept her red face hidden behind her hands.

“I genuinely don’t know who I feel sorrier for at this point, this poor postwoman for what you’re putting her through, or you for just… being you,” Alex said hoarsely when she’d finally got her voice back. Kelly rubbed her wife’s back with one hand while keeping the other over her mouth, clearly trying to hold back her own laughter out of politeness.

“Trust me, I don’t know either,” Kara replied, moodily picking up her own doughnut, before looking back up at Alex and smirking at the sight in front of her. “At least I don’t look like I’ve been snorting cocaine in the middle of Noonan’s, though.”

Kelly finally let out a loud cackling laugh at that, causing a passing waitress to nearly drop her tray of drinks, and Alex wiped at her face with her sleeve before she flicked sugar in Kara’s direction.

“You might as well invite her in for lemonade next time,” Alex said. “You’ve already shown her your underwear and your abs.”

“I’m pretty sure she was flirting with me,” Kara said, turning the doughnut around in circles on her plate. “She pretty much asked me where Snoopy was. And later she said that she found me interesting and intriguing. And sometimes she’s bolder and sometimes she’s kind of shy, and I like that mix because it’s so attractive but cute at the same time. And other times her voice is just so … so …” Kara cast her mind around for a way to describe what she meant and let out a wistful sigh. “Sometimes her voice is just pure velvet and god, she’s so _mind-meltingly_ _attractive_.”

“So what’s the problem?” Alex asked after taking a long drink of her iced tea. “From what you’ve told us, she’s definitely flirting with you. You actually lucked out in that cheesy rom-com kind of way where your postwoman is apparently a goddess and already seems interested in you. Why don’t you ask her out?”

“I can’t ask her out while she’s at _work_ , Alex!” Kara replied indignantly. “That seems really unethical or something. Like … I don’t think I’d want to be asked out while I was in the middle of writing an article or whatever. And also I know next to nothing about her. I want to get to know her. The only things I really know about her is her name and the fact that she’s a postwoman.”

Kelly leaned across the table towards Kara. “Aren’t you an investigative journalist?”

“Yeah?”

Kelly grinned at her. “Isn’t it your job to like … _talk_ to people?”

“… yeah, but—”

“Try talking to her, and this time, don’t fuck up!” Alex interjected. “Don’t flash your underwear or any other part of you.”

≈

Talk to Lena. Kara could try that. She could talk to Lena, sure. No big deal.

So, Kara tried talking to Lena. She figured out that the mail mostly came in the morning, perhaps so that Lena could avoid walking a lot during the hottest part of the day in what had turned out to be a stifling summer.

The next time that Kara saw Lena was two weeks after what she was now calling the _sweaty clothes incident_ , a week or so into July. Kara was lounging on a deck chair on her lawn underneath a large patio umbrella that she’d bought; the lawn was more even around the front of the house than around back, where it sloped towards a small creek. Perfecting a balancing act every time she sat in her lawn chair sounded like too much work until she’d done some groundwork, so here she was, out front.

She was reading a worn copy of an old Bill Bryson book, her legs curled up under her as she sipped on some cold peach iced tea that she had made earlier that morning. The day promised to be very hot, and Kara wanted to spend as much time outside as she could before the heat chased her indoors and towards her overworked AC unit. There was a warm breeze, but the iced tea kept her cool, and it was peaceful. Her neighborhood was quiet, at the edge of the suburbs before opening up to the countryside. It was far from major roads or flight paths, and full of leafy trees and gardens full of flowers. It was the first place she’d ever lived where she didn’t need to worry too much if she forgot to lock her door, and was more likely to hear birds overhead than two cars in an hour.

She hadn’t been out there long when she saw Lena come down the sidewalk, heading up her neighbor’s path with a package. Kara’s attention was caught by the flash of Lena’s reflective Ray-Bans in the sun, and instantly she lost interest in her book. She watched as Lena headed back down the path and came towards Kara’s gate, and noted that Lena was already smiling at her over the fence.

“Good morning,” Kara called out with a wave once Lena reached her gate. Lena’s smile brightened further at Kara’s greeting, and she waved back. Kara tossed her forgotten book to the bottom of the deck chair and made her way over to the gate, iced tea in hand.

“Hi Kara,” Lena said, handing Kara a small stack of bills and a magazine she subscribed to. “No running today?”

“Nah,” Kara replied with a shrug. “It’s going to be too hot, even for me. I thought I’d sit out here and enjoy what I could of the day.” She held up her drink in a half salute. “I’m keeping myself cool.”

Lena looked longingly at the glass when the ice clinked lightly against the side. “What I wouldn’t give for a cold drink. The AC in the van broke in the middle of the week and they haven’t fixed it yet.”

“Oh! Would you like a glass? I’ve not poisoned it, I promise.”

Lena snorted a laugh. “It didn’t even occur to me that you had. That probably says more about me than it does about you. And, yes please, if that’s alright? Although … what is it?”

“It’s peach iced tea!”

“My favorite,” Lena replied eagerly.

“Mine too. I’ll be right back with your drink.” And with that, Kara dashed indoors, put her mail down on the kitchen table, and yanked the fridge open. She’d made a huge jug of the iced tea, knowing that none would go to waste, and poured Lena out a very generous serving. Thankfully managing not to spill any on the way back down the gate, she handed the glass to Lena, who hadn’t moved from her spot by the mailbox.

Lena let out a deep hum of appreciation when she took a long drink, and Kara couldn’t stop the pleased smile from spreading across her face. “You like it?”

“It’s delicious,” Lena breathed, taking another drink before pushing her sunglasses up onto her head and holding the glass against her skin to cool it down. “Do you make this often?” A bead of condensation from the glass made its way down the side of Lena’s face, and Kara found herself transfixed by its path.

“Kara?”

“Oh! Hmm yeah, in the summer I do. Why, would you like the recipe?”

“I think I’d prefer it straight from the source,” Lena said casually in a tone that was anything but casual, and finished off her iced tea while Kara promptly forgot every word in the English language. _Words. What are words?_

“Delicious,” Lena repeated, handing the glass back to Kara with an innocent smile on her face. “Well, I’d better keep going. I’ve got a lot of mail to deliver today.” She patted the bag at her side.

“Right, right, yes, the mail,” Kara said, coming back to her senses, if not as eloquently as she’d hoped. “It won’t deliver itself,” she added, remembering Lena’s words from their last meeting.

Lena put her Ray-Bans back on and brushed the stray wisps of hair off her forehead. “It won’t, although there are times when I wish it did. Thanks for the iced tea. It’s really great.”

“I’ll make some for you for next week, if you like?” Kara asked, preening a little under the compliment.

“I’d love that. I’ll see you next Saturday?”

“I’ll be here. I think. I hope, anyway,” Kara replied, mentally cancelling her plans with Alex and Kelly.

Lena smile turned soft. “I hope so too.”

≈

For the next couple of months, as July moved steadily through August, Kara tried to be home on Saturday mornings. She liked the way that Lena, who after those first weeks, started to linger a little longer by Kara’s mailbox, putting the mail inside as slowly as she could and sending furtive glances up towards Kara’s house, until Kara made her way outside to say hello. For the first week or two, Lena seemed to be surprised every time Kara dropped whatever she was doing inside to go outside to see her. For her part, Kara couldn’t stop her heart from starting to race whenever Lena’s expression turned from surprise to pleasure, as if seeing Kara was the best part of her day.

She found herself wishing the weekdays away, looking forward to Saturday mornings more than any other time of the week. Seeing Lena was the best part of her day, too.

They would only get to talk for a few precious minutes, sharing little stories about their weeks like any new friends would, before Lena would have to go back to work. Kara would tell her about the articles she was working on, and Lena would tell her about funny things that had happened on her route. Without fail, Kara would bring out a glass of iced tea of whichever flavour she’d made that morning. Once, she’d brought out a pastry on a plate too, and Lena had been so delighted that iced tea and a shared treat became part of their little routine.

It turned out that Lena was funny in a deadpan sort of way, her offhand comments about her days making Kara crack up loudly whenever Lena tossed them into their conversations. There was _something_ in her accent that Kara couldn’t place, as if she’d spent time living abroad, but it made Lena’s words in her rich voice sound almost musical; Kara couldn’t get enough of listening to her speak. It occurred to her that Lena could read her phone contract’s terms and conditions to her, and Kara would find it the most fascinating thing in the world, as long as Lena was the one reading it out.

Once, Kara had been doing a crossword when Lena went by, and she helped Kara with a word or two, sharing the fact that she had a degree in Geography and a vast, learned store of general knowledge. That led to Kara trying to quiz Lena on capital cities of the world each time she went past, and Lena giving as good as she got with literary questions for Kara.

Lena never seemed to be in a rush, always making time to talk to Kara for those few minutes before heading off on her way, often with an adorably forlorn look on her face that made Kara’s stomach swoop in the best way possible. _Lena doesn’t want to go, and I want her to stay._

Lena would lightly flirt with her too, in a quiet sort of way, without being too brazen. Lena would drop throwaway comments here and there in their conversations, delivered in a steady voice with a pink blush on her cheeks, as if she were trying to seem braver than she was but couldn’t quite hide her nerves.

And as the weeks passed, there were times that Lena would look at Kara fondly, a hopeful smile on her face like she was pleased at the way things were going between them.

Like she’d said to Alex, Kara really liked the way Lena spoke her mind with a blush on her pale cheeks. It was endearing, and Kara wondered if Lena knew just how captivating she was, how captivating _Kara_ thought Lena was.

Despite them only being able to talk for a few minutes a week, Kara knew there was something between them that she didn’t have with her other friends. There were the shy looks between them, but also bolder moments where the air seemed to crackle between them the longer their eyes held. After Lena had gone, Kara often found herself feeling like she’d run a race, adrenaline pumping through her system and her endorphin levels at all-time highs.

Simply put, Kara couldn’t get enough of Lena. Whenever she talked to Alex about her, Kara knew that she might as well have stars in her eyes. The goddess who had so dazzled Kara on her doorstep all those weeks ago had turned out to be as interesting a person as Kara could’ve wished for. The more she learned about Lena, the more she wanted to know. Every time Kara made Lena laugh, Kara felt a spark of pride within her and tingles skittering down her spine.

Kara had a crush on Lena the goddess, and she wasn’t afraid to say it.

Except, apparently, to Lena. She enjoyed their talks so much that the time passed quickly, leaving her with none in which to gather up her courage and ask Lena for her number, or to cross the professional line entirely and ask her out. Lena made Kara’s heart flutter in her chest, distracted by her until Lena was leaving for another week, and Kara missed her chance to _shoot her shot_ once more. She’d kick herself all week, but every Saturday, Lena came back, and they would spend a happy few minutes talking and flirting lightly with each other before the cycle began again.

Whenever Lena gave Kara one of her shy smiles, her green eyes soft at the corners and with dimples deep in her cheeks, it made Kara want to kiss her. She wanted to hold Lena’s hand, to take her somewhere fun on a date, see how often she could get Lena to laugh. She wanted to find out all the things that make Lena happy.

And in the quiet moments before they parted, where Lena seemed reluctant to leave Kara’s company, when they stood together by the gate, Kara wondered whether Lena felt the same. Was it just harmless flirting? Was Lena like that with all her friends? Kara hoped not, but she had no frame of reference at all.

Or was there something _more_ between them for Lena, too?

≈

For the last two weeks, she didn’t have any post. No letters, no packages, not even a single bill made its way to her mailbox. Lena’s route had been extremely busy as well, and she hadn’t had as much time as usual to stop to talk. It made Kara a little sad, but there wasn’t much she could do about it except to wish Lena a good day as she hurried past.

Early the next Saturday morning, Kara woke up ridiculously early for no reason, and couldn’t get back to sleep. Sighing, she’d got up and found that the weather was cooler than it had been, the middle of September bringing with it the whisper of fall in the mornings. Since she was already up, Kara committed herself to doing those odd jobs around the house that she’d been putting off. The bathroom cabinet door needed fixing, the inside of the refrigerator needed a clean, and the ceiling of her porch needed a lick of paint. She was grateful for the early fall weather, so she wouldn’t be outdoors painting in the blistering heat and sunshine that had characterized the last two months.

By half past nine, Kara was up on a stepladder, a small pot of paint hooked on the handle, with a brush in her hand. She’d finished most of the porch, but left the most difficult part until last. The angle was awkward, and the only way that Kara was able to reach a spot near the front of the porch ceiling was to balance one half of the stepladder on the garden path, and the other half on the step of her porch. It meant the stepladder was at a risky angle, but Kara figured that as long as she did it quickly and carefully, she could finish it off and get back to level ground.

She had her earphones in, listening to and singing along with the Corrs while she painted. There was just … one last bit … Kara climbed up onto the top step in order to reach, and leaned precariously backwards. Stretching up, she was just about to swipe the wood with her paintbrush when she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye.

Kara turned to see what it was.

The next thing Kara knew, she was lying on her back in the grass, staring dazedly at the blue sky above her. Her right hand and elbow were stinging sharply, and her tailbone ached with the impact with the ground. She didn’t feel nauseous, but her stomach lurched like she might be sick anyway after the sudden movement. Dimly, she noted that she could no longer hear her music and she hoped that she hadn’t smashed her phone when she fell.

Kara let out a low groan as her various aches and pains made themselves known, and she tried to roll over, wincing as her body protested.

“No! No, don’t move!”

Kara vaguely heard someone shuffling around on the ground next to her. There was a blurry blue shape on the grass nearby; some kind of bag? A cool hand pressed down gently on her shoulder, keeping her on the ground.

“Hey, you need to just lie still for a minute while I check you out, okay?” The voice was soft, female, and sounded worried. Kara thought she recognized it.

“Mmm, ‘kay,” Kara groaned, trying to blink away her blurry vision. When it didn’t clear, she realized that it was because she’d lost her glasses in the fall.

She felt the cool hands glide slowly down her right arm, pressing fingers in every now and again, presumably to check whether there were any broken bones. Kara flexed her hand. It ached, but it didn’t feel broken, and there was no wrenching pain up her arm.

“That’s good. Can you twist your arm for me? Turn your palm up, and then back down. That’s right. See if you can turn it a full 180 …” the voice continued, and Kara followed the instructions. “Good. Okay, you haven’t broken your arm, and your shoulder isn’t dislocated. I’m going to— Kara, hey, listen. No, don’t turn your head— oh. Did that hurt?”

“N-no, doesn’t hurt,” she mumbled. “Feels ‘kay. ‘m just a bit dazed and my elbow hurts.”

Above her, Kara saw a flash of dark hair as the person shuffled around again.

_Oh, fuck no. Please, no._

Kara’s palms started to sweat.

There was no way she’d fallen off a stepladder in front of Lena.

_Please_ , Kara begged silently. _Please, don’t let me have embarrassed myself for a_ third _time!_

“You smashed your glasses when you fell, but here,” the woman said, pressing something into Kara’s right hand. “The left lens is fine, but don’t put it near your eyes, just in case of shards. The right lens is in pieces on the ground.”

The more the woman spoke, the more Kara recognized the soft, lilting accent of the woman who had occupied her daydreams for the past few months; it was definitely Lena.

_Why me?_

Kara groaned, putting her left hand over her eyes.

Lena mistook the sound and the gesture as one of pain, and she felt hands pulling hers away from her eyes. Blinking, Kara looked up to see the blurry outline of Lena, leaning in closer to her face, one hand cradling her cheek. “Are you alright?”

The further Lena leaned in, the better Kara could see her. Her beautiful eyes were worried, roaming over Kara’s face as if searching for bruises. Her hair seemed to be down today, or part of it was, because it was helping to block the sun from Kara’s eyes.

Lena’s thumb gently brushed her cheekbone, and helplessly, Kara started to giggle. Of course she’d fall while Lena was here to witness it. _Of course_ she would. Alex was really going to get a kick out of this one when she told her.

“Kara? Are you alright?” Lena repeated, cupping Kara’s face in both of her hands now, turning her head towards her own and looking down at her. Even without her glasses, Kara could see the vivid color of Lena’s eyes. She’d never seen a color quite like it before.

Usually, when Kara pictured Lena this close to her, touching her like this, it was because they were going to kiss, not because Kara had fallen off a stepladder.

Kara’s gaze dropped to Lena’s lips; as she looked, they parted slightly, and Kara snapped her eyes back up to Lena’s. The urge to close the small distance between them and kiss Lena, to learn just how soft those lips really were, pulsed through Kara. Butterflies exploded in her stomach, and her breath caught in her throat as Lena’s thumb brushed across her cheekbone.

“Kara?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay,” Kara managed thickly, shaking the thought of kissing Lena out of her head. She started to sit up and groaned when her elbow ached in protest. “Nothing feels broken,” _except for my pride,_ she added mentally, “but I uhh … I probably need to get my other glasses before I tidy up. I’m sure I’ve made a mess.”

“Here,” Lena said, slipping her hand into Kara’s left. “Let me help you up. I don’t want you to put your hands in any of the shards.”

Kara accepted Lena’s help in standing up, and the postwoman hauled her to her feet. Kara didn’t let go of Lena’s hand once she was standing, unwilling to let go of it now that she was holding it, even if it wasn’t the romantic scene she had envisaged. The butterflies in her stomach fluttered again when Lena only tightened her own fingers around Kara’s. Aside from Lena, who was standing very close to her and was therefore mostly in focus, everything else was fuzzy around the edges.

With her right hand, Kara lifted her single glasses lens up to her face like a monocle and looked around, surveying the damage more clearly; she’d managed to tip her paint all over the front path. When she turned to look at Lena, still holding the lens up, Lena let out a low chuckle and squeezed her hand.

“Put a chain on the end of that and you’ll look like some kind of duke.”

“Oh, I’m far more dashing,” Kara replied with a grin and a very slight bow. “They don’t have these artistic paint splatters that I have all over my legs. I’m unique.”

“And far more charming,” Lena mumbled under her breath, so quietly that Kara was sure that she wasn’t meant to hear the response. Lena’s cheeks turned an adorable pink and she smiled shyly. “I’m glad you’re alright. You frightened me, the way you fell off and hit the ground like that.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. Well. I didn’t mean to fall off the ladder _or_ frighten you, but here I am, exceeding all expectations once again,” Kara said with a snort of laughter.

Through her monocle, Kara could see the shards of glass from her other lens on the path. With a start, she remembered that she’d been listening to music on her phone. Reluctantly letting go of Lena’s hand, Kara pulled her phone out of her pocket and held it up to the lens to inspect it. “Well. Thank goodness I didn’t smash this,” she said, putting it back in her pocket.

“What were you listening to that was so absorbing that you didn’t hear me opening your squeaky gate or calling to you?” Lena asked curiously, holding her hand up to shield her eyes from the sun. “I’d been calling you for at least half a minute.”

“Oh, I just wasn’t expecting you to be here so early,” Kara explained, “so I wasn’t expecting anyone to be in my yard. And I was listening to the Corrs. I know they’re kind of cheesy but—”

“I love the Corrs,” Lena interrupted with a bright, eager smile that made Kara’s heart thump harder in her chest.

“Really?!”

“Really.” Lena held up one of her earphones that were slung around her neck, tinny music still audible as it played to nobody. Lena must’ve pulled them out when Kara fell. “I was just listening to them a few songs back. They’re cheerful and they remind me of home.”

Kara was about to reply to the _cheerful_ comment when her attention was snagged by Lena’s last word. “Home?”

“Mm. I’m originally from Ireland,” Lena replied. “I left when I was a child, but I go back quite regularly.”

“Oh wow,” Kara breathed. “I’ve always wanted to visit. My sister and her wife went there on their honeymoon, and obviously I couldn’t third-wheel _that_ particular vacation, but I really, _really_ wanted to!”

The corners of Lena’s eyes crinkled, and when she spoke again, her voice had a hint of longing in it. “It _is_ beautiful, although of course, I’m quite biased. You’ll have to visit, one day. I could give you some tips, if you like?”

“Definitely!” Kara replied excitedly. “Insider tips always make vacations better. And … I had noticed that you had a slight accent, but I wasn’t able to place it. Now that you’ve said you’re from Ireland, I can hear it and it’s … it’s really enchan– um I mean, yeah, I can hear it now,” she finished in a rush.

Lena’s eyebrows rose ever so slightly, and Kara just _knew_ that Lena had caught her slip. Instead of commenting on it, she hesitated for a moment before she seemed to come to a decision. Lena lowered her hand and reached once more for Kara’s free one; Kara’s heart jumped in her chest when Lena tangled their fingers together. As they stood facing each other, Lena’s thumb gently brushed Kara’s skin and sent tingles of warm pleasure throughout her body. She was looking at Kara with something like hope in her eyes.

“Yeah,” Lena said, taking a tiny step closer. “The Irish accent comes out when I’m really relaxed or happy. It’s more obvious if I’ve had a couple of drinks too, so if we happened to be at a bar together, or sharing a bottle of wine at a restaurant…” her voice trailed off, a small smile pulling at the corners of her lips.

It took Kara an outrageously long moment to realize what Lena was asking, too caught up in the beautiful color of Lena’s eyes and the way the sunlight highlighted the dimples in her cheeks when she was smiling. It was only when the dimples disappeared and Lena looked like she was trying to hide her disappointment that her words fully sank into Kara’s brain.

Kara felt her face burn with both alarm and embarrassment as it became painfully clear that Lena had tried to give her an opening and she hadn’t taken it, instead letting a deafening silence stretch between them while she’d been daydreaming about Lena’s smile.

Before she could say anything though, Lena was removing her hand from Kara’s and taking a step backwards.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” Lena said quickly, a grimace marring her delicate features as she tried to smooth over what had just happened. She stooped to pick up her bag and slung it around her shoulder, pulling it into place with a jerky movement. “Forget I said anything.”

“No!” Kara blurted out, desperate to salvage the situation as her stomach lurched with sudden panic. “I’d like to hear you more. That is, I’d like to talk with you more I mean, and not just when you’re working,” Kara rushed on, feeling her blush deepen further as her nerves jangled and her heart raced in her chest. Lena was now looking more than a little confused, caught somewhere between hope and mortification, apparently not sure whether she was still being rejected or if something else was now happening.

Kara couldn’t let this chance slip between her fingers. She couldn’t let this chance to ask Lena out on a date get away from her. She’d finally had her chance after weeks of waiting for it, and Lena herself had been the one to hint at crossing the _I’m at work_ line, if Kara had been up for stepping over it with her.

Now that the moment was here, she wasn’t going to throw it away.

She steeled her nerves, cleared her throat, and straightened up. “Lena–”

“ _Daaaaaamn,_ Kara, what the fuck happened?” interrupted a voice, and Kara gaped in disbelief at the timing as her neighbor Mike pushed his way through her front gate. He walked right up to them and gestured around at the mess. “Were you trying out some new Impressionist stuff on your lawn?”

“ _Mike!_ ” Kara hissed under her breath at him.

“What’s with the monocle? What happened to your glasses? Did you fall? Are you alright?” he asked, ignoring her tone and pointing at the lens she was still holding up in front of her eye.

“I think I’d better go,” Lena murmured. “Um, here’s your mail,” she said, shoving what was obviously junk mail into Kara’s empty hand before backing away, her cheeks tinged pink. “I’ll see you around.”

“No, Lena wait–”

“Bye, Kara,” Lena said, meeting Kara’s eyes one last time, an agonized expression on her face, before she turned away and walked through the gate.

And Kara, with her smashed glasses, was unable to go after her.

≈

Kara brooded for the rest of the night. She’d moodily cleaned up the spilt paint with Mike’s help. She tried not to be angry with him, understanding that he hadn’t known he’d been interrupting her _just_ as she was _finally_ about to ask Lena on a date. It wasn’t his fault, she reminded herself over and over again.

Her lawn was now free of paint, and her bruises from her fall were very colorful, but her disappointment at not being able to fix things with Lena was potent. It seemed like everything had been going great one minute, and in the next the situation had slipped through her fingers like sand. She cursed the fact that she hadn’t immediately answered Lena, that Lena had left before she could salvage anything, but there was nothing to be done for it now.

They’d barely spent an hour together really, just those wonderful minutes every Saturday morning for a couple of months, but Kara _liked_ Lena. She liked her enough to want to see where the chemistry she felt between them could go, and the thought that she’d made Lena feel rejected stung worse than anything. She was now extremely positive that Lena had been hinting at something more between them too, had _finally_ hinted that perhaps what Kara was feeling was mutual, and Kara buried her face in her hands at the thought that she’d messed it up.

All she could do now was to wait until next Saturday and hope that Lena would be around, so that Kara could apologize.

So that she could ask Lena out properly.

Kara ran a hot bath and soaked in it, replaying their conversation over and over again. She stayed in it until the water went cold and she finally climbed out, dried off, and went to bed. She went to sleep with the memory of Lena’s hand in hers keeping her company.

≈

Lena didn’t come by the following Saturday. Kara stayed home all day, but the mail was delivered by a postman that Kara had never seen before. When he came to the door with a delivery of paintbrushes that she’d been waiting for for a while, she struggled not to ask him where Lena was.

Without knowing Lena’s number, Kara had no way of finding out whether Lena was okay or not. Maybe she was sick? Maybe she’d just called in, still thinking that she’d embarrassed herself so badly the week before that she couldn’t face Kara? Maybe she was worried that she had finally stepped over the professional line that she and Kara had been dancing around for weeks, going near it but never crossing it until last week; maybe she was thinking that Kara was uncomfortable with what Lena had suggested, and was now concerned for her job? Kara had no idea.

Maybe Kara would never see Lena again.

After all, what did they really have together? A new friendship, laughter, a mutual love of quizzes, and some harmless flirtation?

By Saturday night, long after the chance of any more mail being delivered had passed, Kara was sulkily curled up on her sofa and watching _Some Like It Hot_ on TV. It was a film which usually cheered her up when she felt down, but it wasn’t working this time. She had a bowl of chocolate ice cream slowly turning to chocolate soup in her lap as she scrolled mindlessly through Twitter, her attention bouncing between her phone and the TV, but held by neither.

It was just past nine when there was a quiet knock at her door. Kara barely heard it over the TV, but when it came a little louder a second time, she groaned loudly, kicked the blanket off her legs and set the bowl down on a placemat on her coffee table. She frowned at the time on her phone screen, wondering who the hell would be coming around this late. Alex or Kelly would’ve texted. Even Winn would’ve given her some sort of advance notice; in fact, all of her friends would’ve. In her annoyance, Kara took her time making her way towards the door, hoping that the person would’ve left by the time she got there.

Without bothering to look through the peephole, Kara unlocked the door and pulled it open as far as the security chain would let her.

She didn’t see anyone.

Sighing, she shut the door hard and relocked it, and turned back to the lounge. She was halfway down the hall when there was another knock at the door. This time, she could see the outline of a person through the frosted glass. She turned back and unlocked the door again, her irritation at the day and at the interruption of her crap evening flaring in her chest.

Kara had only pulled it open a fraction before she saw who it was. Shutting the door quickly, she yanked the security chain open and pulled the door fully open.

Lena was standing on her doorstep, Kara’s hall light illuminating her in the darkness. She was dressed in dark jeans and low-heeled boots, and a plain black tshirt with an open red and black plaid shirt over it with the sleeves rolled up. Her hair was loose, spilling over her shoulders in silky, shiny waves. Kara was so used to seeing her in her USPS uniforms that she stared at Lena in surprise for a moment, taking in the way it made Lena look completely different.

Lena looked nervous, one hand wedged in one of her front pockets and the other behind her back. She shuffled her weight from one foot to the other, before scuffing the toe of one boot against the wood of Kara’s porch.

“Hi, Kara,” she said quietly, a tentative smile on her lips.

“Hey,” Kara replied, returning the smile and leaning against her doorframe.

Lena’s smile vanished abruptly. “I’m so sorry for just turning up here. I know that I shouldn’t be here, it’s extremely unprofessional of me and you’d be completely within your rights to report me to the USPS or whoever really, for being here at your house right now when it’s nothing to do with your mail—”

“Hey,” Kara said again, shoving off the doorframe and holding her hands up, hoping to stem Lena’s speech.

It didn’t work.

“But I wanted to see you,” Lena continued with a blush rising on her pale cheeks, her voice a little unsteady. “I wanted to come and tell you that I– I changed my route,” she blurted out after a pause.

Silence hung between them at Lena’s statement. Lena pulled her hand out of her pocket and tapped her thigh, as if she didn’t know what to do with herself while she waited for Kara to say something.

“You changed your route?” Kara asked finally, her stomach sinking. Lena had changed her route? That would mean that they wouldn’t see each other anymore. Their Saturday morning chats, their getting to know each other. It would stop.

“Yeah,” Lena replied.

Kara swallowed around a sudden lump in her throat. She didn’t want to ask, but she had to know. “Why? Was it me? Something I did?”

“No!” Lena exclaimed wildly. “Of course not! It was all to do with me. I asked to change my route, and they let me. I’ll be delivering mail over in Burton now.”

“Oh,” Kara said, her tone flat, not knowing what else to say to that.

Lena scuffed the toe of her boot along the porch again, then straightened her shoulders and gave Kara a hesitant smile. “I– well, I thought that if I wasn’t your postwoman anymore, then maybe we– I _haven’t_ been imagining it, have I? It’s not … just me, is it? Looking at you and— and hoping?”

The blush deepened on her face. Without waiting for Kara to reply, she shifted her weight again before pulling a single lavender rose, thorns trimmed away, out from behind her back. She touched the petals tenderly before she looked up, her green eyes shining and full of affection, and held it carefully out to Kara. “Would you … would you like to go out for a drink, or maybe for a walk sometime? With me, I mean?”

Kara, her heart racing in her chest at Lena’s gesture, finally stepped forward. She reached out and let her fingertips trail along Lena’s hand and down her wrist, then back up until they were both holding the rose between them.

“What does a lavender rose mean?” Kara asked quietly.

“Enchantment at first sight,” Lena replied, her voice just as quiet as she looked up at Kara. “It can also mean delight, or wonder.”

“At first sight, when we met, my underwear was showing,” Kara said in amusement, reaching out with her other hand to touch Lena’s waist tentatively.

Lena’s eyes softened with fondness. “And I’ve found you charming ever since, Snoopy.”

Lena’s words made Kara brave. She pulled Lena closer to her until they were standing very close together, close enough for her to smell the delicate scent of Lena’s perfume. She slid her hand around Lena’s waist until it was resting on the small of her back, the rose held in their joined hands to the side of them as Kara touched her forehead to Lena’s. They stood together in a dancer’s embrace, bathed in the light from Kara’s hallway.

“I’d love to go for a walk with you, Lena. Or for a drink with you. Both, preferably, and more. I thought I’d messed it up last week, and when you didn’t come back today,” she said, feeling Lena’s breath against her lips while she talked, “I thought you’d … I was sad. I thought I’d missed my chance with you.”

“Never,” Lena replied, her breath hitching a little in her throat as their noses brushed. Kara closed her eyes as the sensation washed over her. “I’ve wanted to ask you out for a while. But while I was at work … but I’m not your postwoman anymore.”

“And what does that mean for us?” Kara asked, knowing the answer but wanting to hear it from Lena.

In response, Lena kissed her softly, her lips warm and gentle. Her hand trailed up Kara’s arm to rest on her shoulder and they stood there in the doorway, Kara holding Lena against her as she kissed her back. She felt Lena’s lips curve up in a smile against hers, and soon they were both smiling into the kiss, Lena’s hand moving to slide into Kara’s hair.

“It means,” Lena whispered against Kara’s lips before giving Kara an open-mouthed kiss that made Kara’s knees weak, “that there _could_ be an us.”

“I’d like that very much,” Kara replied once they came up for air, her voice a little hoarse as she stroked her hand down Lena’s silky hair before digging her hand into it, loving the feel of it under her fingertips. “I’d _really_ like that.”

Lena smiled at her, bright and jubilant, before she pressed another lingering kiss to Kara’s lips. “How about right now? Are you busy?”

“Now sounds great,” Kara replied, taking the rose from Lena and laying it carefully in a dish on the table near the front door. She picked up her wallet and shoved it into her pocket before reaching for Lena’s hand, linking their fingers together. Lena’s hand was warm in hers, and Lena held on firmly, her thumb slowly brushing the back of Kara’s.

“Shall we, miss Danvers?” Lena asked, waiting for Kara to lock the door behind them before they set off down the path together.

“We shall, miss… wait, I don’t know your last name!”

Lena let out a low laugh, deep and rich. “It’s Luthor. Lena Luthor.”

Kara pulled Lena to a stop on the path, reaching up to brush some of Lena’s soft hair behind her ear. She kept her hand there, gently stroking the skin behind her ear with her fingertips, marveling when Lena leant into the touch and closed her eyes. Kara couldn’t help but tip Lena’s face up and press another kiss to her mouth, delighting in the happy sound Lena made in the back of her throat.

“Well, Lena Luthor. Where shall we go?” Kara murmured, trailing kisses up Lena’s jaw before pulling back to look at her.

Lena smiled so brightly that her dimples were highlighted by the moonlight shining down upon them. “Anywhere but your mailbox.”

Kara laughed at that, and together they walked down the path, hand in hand, and out of the gate. “Let’s just see where the night takes us.”

Lena squeezed her hand and leaned up to kiss Kara’s cheek. “Sounds great to me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! :) <3
> 
> Come and talk to me about Lena Luthor, Katie McGrath, SuperCorp, or anything else on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/melui-the-ravenclaw) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Melui_Ravenclaw) if you'd like! :)


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